From the Rockford Register Star:

Senate inaction means loss of local grants
CeaseFire’s future is uncertain when the deadline for an override of the gov’s budget cuts passes.
Oct 25, 2007 @ 11:44 PM
By Aaron Chambers
RRSTAR.COM
ROCKFORD -

The state Senate sealed the deal Thursday on Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s decision to cut nearly $3 million from Rock River Valley projects.

The Senate had until Thursday to override the governor’s cuts — including 15 grants worth $2.8 million for the Rock River Valley. The House previously voted to overturn Blagojevich’s move, but without Senate action the cuts stand.

For one nonprofit, the loss of funding spells doom.

“CeaseFire as it existed will probably have to come to an end,” said Willie Ashford, director of CeaseFire Rockford, the local chapter of a statewide violence prevention program.

Blagojevich killed all state funding for the statewide program — $6.25 million, including $250,000 for the local chapter. Ashford said he would meet in Chicago today with other CeaseFire directors to discuss their financial future.

Overall, the governor cut $463 million in spending he called “pork” and “nonessential.” He claimed he would put those dollars behind expanded health care, but it’s not clear how he might accomplish that without the Legislature’s approval. For a list of the local grants affected, click here.

The cuts included $50,000 earmarked for Crusader Clinic, which provides health care to Rockford’s indigent. Gordon Eggers, the clinic’s president and chief executive, took the loss in stride, saying he was pleased that lawmakers separately increased funding for community health-care providers by $3 million.

“I’m not mad at the governor,” he said. “Sometimes you just don’t get things, and you just keep moving on.”

Also cut were $700,000 for Winnebago County and $700,000 for the Rural Medical Education program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford.

Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen has said the county would use the money for a variety of road and other infrastructure projects. As for the medical program, Dr. Martin Lipsky, regional dean for the university’s college, said it was intended to buttress expansion.

“It does hurt, at a time you’re trying to build and do more than just sustain,” Lipsky said.

Blagojevich also cut additional funding for the Illinois Arts Council, a group headed by the wife of House Speaker Michael Madigan, another Chicago Democrat who is Blagojevich’s chief adversary. That means $25,000 less for the Rockford Area Arts Council, which redistributes state grant funds to local arts programs.

Anne O’Keefe, the local council’s executive director, called the collective hit to arts programs “a colossal disaster.” On the bright side, she said, it could help motivate arts supporters to better mobilize and find new sources of financial support.

Senate Democratic and Republican leaders blamed each other for the chamber’s failure to act by Thursday — just the latest rhetorical burst in the feud undermining state government.

Senate President Emil Jones Jr. is teamed with Blagojevich, his fellow Chicago Democrat, against other legislative leaders. Jones wouldn’t allow the Senate to vote on whether to restore the local grants.

Not every local grant is dead. Blagojevich did not cut 53 local grants totaling $3.05 million.